


Crystal Hell

by Megchad22



Series: Hell [2]
Category: Hellraiser & Related Fandoms, Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Episode: s04e04 Doppelganger, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 04:19:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17738873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megchad22/pseuds/Megchad22
Summary: The Crystal Creature could not have made a worse choice in entering Rodney McKay. And with that one act it set off a series of events that no one can stop.





	Crystal Hell

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of an ongoing series but can be read as a stand alone. Also the McShep relationship refers to something from the previous story. Other wise it is entirely Gen

John managed an imitation of a smile when he saw Rodney looking over. Both had been fully prepped and now were lying on gurneys. Wires connected them to the very machines that might be their salvation.

 

Rodney was pale under the soft glow of the Lantean lights. The dark rings under his eyes denoted the stress and lack of sleep that he had been facing. It hurt something fierce that something barrowing Johns own face was responsible for the exhaustion in his friend, his family. 

 

“You don’t have to do this.” Rodney offered again, seeming to be so much less than himself. His fear shining even brighter than his genius.  “I am really screwed up.”

 

“It will be fine, Rodney. We’ll beat this.”

 

The drugs began to take hold. First Rodney than John slid into oblivion and out into a rowboat floating on a vast ocean.  The twinkling light of Atlantis reflected on the water around them from where it lay behind John, sitting at the bow. Icy rain as sharp as knives pelted down.

 

He could see Rodney on the bench in front of him, rowing. Beyond him sat the creature.

 

“You might as well give up.” The thing said, almost conversationally to Rodney. The rain grew several degrees colder. “There’s nothing you can do to survive this.”

 

“Don’t listen to him, Rodney. You can do this” John broke in.

 

“Easy for you to say. You should try rowing.” Rodney shouted over the rain. A large shape crested off the starboard side of the boat, causing Rodney to jolt.

 

John blinked, and he was suddenly next to Rodney, his hands wrapped around the rough wood of the paddle. In no time the duo was rowing in tandem, the creature smirking at them from in front of them. Every so often the waves shifted in a way that let them know that whatever that was below the surface was still there. “You know this really isn’t that weird.”

 

From the corner of his eye he saw a twist in Rodney’s face. “Just wait.”

 

“You can’t win.” The creature spoke to Rodney smugly, “You are going to die here.”

 

Rodney stopped rowing, causing to boat to spin for moment before John stopped as well. The look on his face was strange, nostalgic and frightened and somehow horribly sad. “You’re right. None of us are getting out of this.” He turned to John and murmured, “I am sorry.” Then the oar slipped from his hands into the water.

 

Before John could do anything an enormous whale like creature surged from below them, jaws open wide to swallow the boat whole.

 

Everything went dark

 

_Outside the mind of Rodney McKay nearly the entire medical staff stood ready if he went into any kind of distress. It would not be until much later when the scientists had a chance to that anyone would realize that for a period of two seconds Sheppard’s vitals went crazy and should have set off any alarms attached to him. None had gone off._

John blinked as light flood in his senses.  He stood at the edge of a circle of light fifteen feet across with a large mirror cutting through the circle, it’s angle such that he couldn’t quite see a reflection.  Rodney was further in with the thing wearing his face.  A few steps brought him to the pair and the mirror they stood beside.  The thing wearing his face was no longer looking as smug.

 

Rodney’s eyes flitted over to John, the twist of his mouth pushing downward, “I am sorry that you got mixed up in this, John.” Overlaying the words was a strange clicking noise that echoed through the darkness. The scientist turned to the creature, “You really should not have come here.”

 

A voice sounded from the darkness, “No, you should not.”

 

The beings that stepped from the darkness were beyond John’s strangest nightmares. The male was paler than a Wraith, his body was a fearful mixture of leather, metal, and bleeding flesh. His head inch long metal pins covering his skull at even intervals, the points drilling down into bloodless flesh.  The female was clothed in leather strips forming a dress that just barely preserved her modesty.  The flesh of her chest stripped back and away to form the base of the wings moving stiffly behind her.   Thorns grew from her forehead and in a line down her arms.

 

Before John could say, or scream, a thing movement colored in blue caught the corner of his eye.  He looked more fully at the mirror and the horror intensified.  His skin had become blue and hardened. His eyes were yellow and slitted.  His hands were claws.  But his was not the only strange reflection.

 

In the mirror the thing wearing his face was a small crystalline creature. It was barely three feet tall and glowed with some inner white light. It’s only human like features was the twisting smirk on its face.

 

The tall pin headed creature was…human. In the mirror it was a man of indeterminate age. White skin, brown hair and eyes.  The only thing that was different about this man from any other middle-aged white man was the WW I British officer’s uniform he was wearing. 

 

The female creature was also human. A pretty young woman with long curly brown hair.  Her clothes were decades out of date. 

 

All of them faded in face of the reflection of Rodney. His form was twisted and deformed.  Scar tissue layered upon his skin, covering his eyes, his nose. Four wires wrapped around his skull to pull his lips back, revealing teeth that chattered together whenever Rodney spoke. It was dressed in the same leather as the pinhead creature.

 

The pinhead spoke, “It seems you companion has seen the truth in the mirror.”

 

Rodney grimaced, the expression unable to transfer over to the reflective surface, “It does indeed. Sheppard is mine to shape, I claim that right.  The intruder is yours to do with as you will”

 

The female creature laughed lightly, somehow the purity of the sound was more disturbing for the creature’s visage. “No pleasantries, Rodney? Do you really want to just get down to business?”

 

The image across from Rodney twitched with the smile that crossed his face. “We are a bit beyond pleasantries, Lady Kirsty. Though there is some irony in meeting like this.”

 

The female, Lady Kirsty, laughed. “You could at least try to make a deal, for old time sake.”

 

This caused Rodney to pause, “Is there a deal to be made?”

 

The male creature spoke, his voice emotionless. “You have brought a whole new being, unknown to Leviathan. That, as you know, is a gift beyond compare.”

 

The creature wearing Johns face sneered at all of them but chose to speak on to McKay. “Do you really think these things will save you, you are doomed, McKay.”

 

“Doomed.” The pinheaded creature spoke without any intonation. “You speak of doom as if you understand the term.”

 

“You are just a projection, some strange protection trying to scare me off. It won’t work, McKay’s life belongs to me.”

 

Rodney huffed a strange half laugh. “You have no idea what you have trespassed upon.  What sights you have in store for you. Even if we do not survive you will take no more of my family.”

 

Lady Kirsty reached a hand and put it onto Rodney’s shoulder, “It has taken one of yours?”

 

“Kate Heightmyer. It scared her to death. I don’t suppose she passed into Leviathan’s realm?”

 

The pinhead paused a moment, eyes going unfocused, “Unfortunately her soul did not pass to us. Let us move onto business.” The thing waved a negligent arm and John jerked as hooked chains shot from the mirror to wrap around the thing wearing his face.  Surprise registered, and the first notes of its pained scream cut off as it was dragged into the mirror. The crystal reflection lingered for a moment longer, wrapped in chains before it was dragged back and away.

 

Rodney had a satisfied look on his face as he watched the creature be dragged away.  Then he turned back to the remaining creatures, “You mentioned there might be deal to be made.”

 

The female creature grinned. She seemed almost fond, “The crystal being is worth your life and acknowledgment of your claim.”

 

For once since John had known him Rodney did not argue, “And the cost for John’s life?”

 

The pinheads deep voice seemed echoing even more than before. “Our son could do with an additional protector.”

 

Lady Kirsty broke in before the statement fully faded, “Stiles and his claimed will be heading to your city. He needs a guide who understands. Agree and your John is given a reprieve. Disagree and he will remain until you arrive, unshaped under Leviathans care.”

 

“John’s reprieve will at least outlast mine?” Rodney asked, his eyes narrowed.

 

“Unless he passes into our realm on his own or encounters a new schism.” The pinhead intoned.

 

Rodney nodded, “That’s fair. We agree.”

 

There was a thoughtful look on the face of Lady Kirsty, “There is still a debt owed.”

 

“Oh?” Rodney asked, for the first time looking wary.

 

Lady Kirsty smiled reassuringly, “The debt is owed to you, my friend, not to us. The creature gave nothing for what was stolen from you. Not just the life but the echo of fear and distrust from those closest to you regarding your John.  It owes him a debt.”

 

“And all debts must be paid.”  The pinhead remarked.

 

“I take it you know how this debt must be repaid.” Rodney said.

 

Lady Kirsty smiled.  “Return the crystal to its world.  It’s debt to you shall be repaid.”

 

Rodney looked slightly disbelieving, “You will extract the debt owed to us? What is the cost of this favor?”

 

The pinhead made a face that was almost like amused without moving a single muscle, “We are only collecting a debt for a comrade who cannot.”

 

Rodney inclined his head, “Thank you. I guess this is it until our time to pass into the realm comes.”

 

The grin on Lady Kirsty was bright and happy, alight with pleasure. “Then until we meet again, my friend. You have been missed.” Moving quicker than sight her hands shot forward to them and a single twisted claw pieced their chests simultaneously. 

 

The pain clogged the scream in Johns throat. He shot into a sitting position on the gurney without feeling any transition. Around him swarmed scientists and doctors taking note on the readings. Across from him Rodney sat up as well.  His eyes turned to the crystal, which had begun to glow again. Only no there was something different to the white glow, something corrupted.

 

Rodney’s voice cut through his contemplation. “…agreed to leave if we brought it’s crystal back to its planet and didn’t touch anything else.”

 

Much later, after they returned the crystal to its planet, he cornered Rodney. “what the fuck was that?”

 

Rodney peered around then pulled John into his room.  “Could you be a little more obvious? Nothing like the military commander interrogating the head scientist to get tongues wagging. We really can’t take that kind of scrutiny now.”

 

“Rodney, I just lied to my CO for you outright, on your word. I deserve an actual explanation.”

 

Rodney sighed and hunched, “You do. By the way Sam likely knows that we were lying. But she probably can guess what went on, so she won’t call either of us on it…”

 

“McKay! What the fuck happened?”

 

 “Look it’s a long story. I told you I was fucked up.”

 

John rolled his eyes, “I’m not sleeping anytime tonight.”

 

“Fair enough.  Have you even noticed that even when we deal with alternate universe they are very similar to ours?  Even though we think that makes up about 10% of the universes at most.”

 

John growled, “Get to the point”

 

“There are some universes with a really specific energy needed to allow for people to interact with them.  The universe that Lady Kirsty and Pinhead took the crystal creature to requires atrocity on a level that is beyond anything most humans are capable of. It is a stain so deep that an person, action or area who interacts with that universe is forever marked. Every marked person will inevitably be pulled into that universe.”

 

John was horrified. “How would you have _that_ in your head?”

 

Rodney smiled sheepishly, “That is the long part of the story. Before I tell you that you need to understand that universe is so very different from ours. The only natural resident is the Leviathan, god of the labyrinth.  It had no concept of humanity, or mortality, until the first human passed into it’s realm. There was no birth, no death.  It experimented on the first humans and in its realm they were unable to die.  The very first ones were left as piles of goo, unable to move or think or do anything in the face of the unending pain.”

 

“How does this relate to how the fuck you got involved with those things?”

 

“I’m getting there.  I was not the first human to fall into its realm, but I was not far off.  I was the first success in its experiments, Leviathan’s first creation.”

 

John couldn’t deny the horror creeping up on him anymore, “That thing in the mirror…that was you? How? And how are you…?”

 

“How am I here and not there? Leviathan. But that is later in the story.  I was born to a small tribe living on the northern shore of what would one day be Lake Ontario.  It was so long ago that my memories of that life are hazy. I remember being sickly compared to the other boys. I was a genius even then, but I got sick so often and my ideas seemed so much like magic that they thought I was a cursed child. I’m not sure how old I was when my father offered me up for sacrifice, later guesses put me between 7 and 11 years old.  The last clear memory of that life was my father holding me down in the ceremonial circle and hitting me with a ceremonial club. Over and over again.” As Rodney continued to recite his memories his voice went flat, monotone. “I was not the first child to be sacrifice in such a way and every child thinned the veil between this universe and the Leviathan’s. I was just the first one to fall through.”

 

There was so much potential for horror inherent in that statement that John didn’t know where to begin.  One detail stuck out, “How long ago was this.”

 

Rodney shook himself from the memories and looked back at John, “Obviously I never was able to keep track of exact years but from the little I remember, I was probably born in the late Archaic period, what would be called in Europe the Early Bronze age.”

 

John blinked, “Wouldn’t that make you roughly 5000 years old.”

 

“Give or take a couple of hundred years. It’s not like I was aware for chunks of it. The process of becoming a cenobite, especially the first successful one, took decades if not longer.”

 

“Cenobite…? No, never mind we can get into that later. You need to finish this story with how we accessed that universe in your mind.”

 

“That falls later in the story. Cenobite is what we took to calling ourselves, the successes, by the way. But for times sake, over the centuries there were more of us. As humans began to do horrible things to each other more rifts opened. Most were by accident, some were by design.  The world began to view us as demons and Leviathan’s universe as hell. The title kind of stuck.  In the 1400’s a French lord contracted a toymaker to carve a wooden puzzle box and used black magic to attempt to summon Leviathan into the body of a human woman, a prostitute.  It was only partially successful in that a small piece of leviathan was channeled through the box and into the woman, whom the lord;s apprentice named Angelique. The act of summoning, the murder of the prostitute and the lord and the eventual death of the toymaker all combined and soaked into the wood of that box. It is called the Lament Configuration and it is the most powerful tool for opening a rift between this universe and Hell.”

 

“This is the short version?”

 

Rodney glared lightly, though amusement broke through. “Considering I skipped a couple thousand years.”

 

“You’re only in the 1400’s.”

 

“You’re a funny man, Colonel. Now may I continue?”

 

“Lecture on, oh old one.”

 

Rodney rolled his eyes, “Right, the next relevant bit happened in the 1980’s. Lady Kirsty’s uncle, Frank, had found and opened the Lament Configuration and through a series of unfortunate events managed to escape Hell.”

 

“Escape?”

 

“His fraternal twin brother, who shared blood with him in the womb, bled on the exact spot where he was taken from. It brought enough of him back that, with the murderous help of his sister in law, he was able to put himself back together. Lady Kirsty was human at the time and accidentally brought us into this world to hunt him down.”

 

“Who is us?

 

“Pinhead, who had taken to being a Cenobite unusually well. Despite being one of the younger ones he was one of the more powerful and the best cenobite trackers I’ve ever met.  I went along as well, I tended to have a pretty good shock factor on my side.  The Butterball was out third, he preferred to do most of his work under the Engineer but we all could tell Kirsty was an interesting prize, so he wanted to see what would happen. Our forth was Fallen, a female Cenobite that tended to hunt with Pinhead.  With Lady Kirsty’s help we managed to hunt down Frank to bring him back to the punishment he deserved. We attempted to take Lady Kirsty then but she remains one of the only people who can both open and close the Lament Configuration.”

 

“Is that some kind of special skill?” John asked sarcastically.

 

“Yes. The Configuration only opens for someone who desires to experience more than the mortal realm can offer. To have that desire but be able to put it aside enough to close it again is impressive.  But you wanted to know my story not hers. This part is just entwined with hers.  She went to a mental hospital to deal with the resulting trauma but the doctor there had been obsessed with the Configuration and all it could provide.  She stumbled upon his research and realized that we had once been human, she even found a picture of Pinhead’s mortal form. The process of becoming a Cenobite breaks the mind and blocks off the memories of our mortality. It was only after she  forced us to remember that the doctor, who had become a Cenobite himself, struck us with enough force to ‘kill’ us, or return us back to our mortal forms.”

 

“How is it no one knows any of this?”

 

“Leviathan. It…exerted itself on our behalf. It didn’t feel, not quite, not in the way that humans consider it. But it got as close as it could to…caring for us, as it’s creations. It decided that we would better be able to serve it in the human world as humans and it ensured that we would be able to move about the human world. It managed to modify a family, not far from where I was born, to believe that I was their son. I suspect that they were descendants of my father or mother.  I don’t know how the Pinhead became himself again or how Lady Kirsty became a Cenobite. I know at least one of the others is still in this universe.”

 

John felt slightly dizzy with all the information he needed to process but still had a few questions left to ask, “Why did you claim me, it felt like something significant.”

 

Rodney sighed, the slope of his mouth pulling further down. “Everyone who meets a Cenobite or touches Hell will return there upon death. Every single person and those that can be will be shaped into Cenobites.  I was ensuring that the hand that will break you will be mine, that you will be shaped by someone who will not take you eyes or your hands or anything else you need to fly.”

 

At last John had hit one revelation too much. Hearing that Rodney would turn him into one of those things had him lurching to his feet. “I won’t tell anyone, but I need to think.”  He all but ran from the room leaving a frowning McKay behind him.

 

 **A dimension away in the Labyrinth Leviathan felt the ripples in the multiverse. Its plans were coming to fruition and soon it’s most treasured creation would be back. For what was a few decades to a God. When the creation returned he would bring with him new toys and the most powerful direct connection to the human world since the Lament Configuration. In the mean time it got to play with the gifts it Chatterer sent, a brand new thing to experiment on.**  


End file.
